[kde-linux] baloo_file_extractor - huge disk usage?

Thu Aug 13 21:36:35 UTC 2015

Hi,
   I'm not sure if this is a Gentoo issue or a KDE issue so I'll start
on the KDE list. Thanks in advance.

   I have a problem that's developed recently. The basic symptom is
the machine slows down horribly at some point in the afternoon with
the disk activity light is full on - no blinking at all. This results
in all applications - Virtualbox, Chrome, etc. - essentially ceasing
to operate correctly and KDE to sometimes locking up for 5-10 minutes.
Due to recent messages from Gentoo devs requiring baloo I've started
looking there.

   When I'm in this state where disk activity appears to be 100% I see
large wait percentages in top. (3 CPUs in this state right now.)
Running iotop it appears that something called baloo_file_extractor is
spending 99.9% of its time waiting.

   While writing this message the disk light has gone back to no
activity, the machine is responsive and the baloo_file_extractor app
is no longer using io.

   So, the basic question is how do I turn this off or at least get it
under control as it's causing huge problems when it occurs?

   If this isn't the right list please advise where is better. Maybe
it's a distro issue.

Thanks,
Mark

c2RAID6 ~ # top
top - 14:26:00 up  4:53,  3 users,  load average: 4.66, 4.57, 4.43
Tasks: 225 total,   1 running, 224 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu0  :  0.3 us,  1.0 sy,  0.0 ni,  2.8 id, 92.7 wa,  0.0 hi,  3.1 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu1  :  1.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,  0.0 id, 99.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu2  :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,  0.0 id,100.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu3  :  0.3 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu4  :  0.7 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.3 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu5  :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu6  :  0.0 us,  0.3 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu7  :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu8  :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu9  :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu10 :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
%Cpu11 :  0.0 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni,100.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem:  24685212 total, 16563312 used,  8121900 free,   454088 buffers
KiB Swap: 12582904 total,        0 used, 12582904 free. 13843164 cached Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+
COMMAND
 2574 root      20   0  213512 120496  86040 S   1.3  0.5   8:01.83 X
 1111 root      20   0       0      0      0 D   1.0  0.0   2:21.59
md3_raid6
    3 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:30.64
ksoftirqd/0
 1092 root       0 -20       0      0      0 S   0.3  0.0   0:50.42
kworker/0:1H
 3304 mark      20   0 3514860 193656  84836 S   0.3  0.8   4:38.51
plasma-desktop
 3307 mark      20   0    4636   2036   1580 S   0.3  0.0   1:11.55 ksysguardd

c2RAID6 ~ # ps aux | grep baloo
mark      3303  0.1  0.1 335300 33272 ?        SNl  09:34   0:18
/usr/bin/baloo_file
mark     12966  2.0  0.1 239424 39836 ?        DN   14:15   0:01
/usr/bin/baloo_file_extractor 159184 159183 159182 159181 159180
159179 159178 159177 159106 159105 159104 159103 159102 159101 159100
159099 159098 159097 159096 159095 159094 159093 159092 159091 159090
159089 159088 159087 159086 159085 159084 159083 159082 159081 159080
159079 159078 159077 159076 159075
root     12978  0.0  0.0   8928   928 pts/1    S+   14:16   0:00 grep
--colour=auto baloo
c2RAID6 ~ #

c2RAID6 ~ # iotop -ob -d 10
Total DISK READ :       0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE :       0.00 B/s
Actual DISK READ:       0.00 B/s | Actual DISK WRITE:       0.00 B/s
  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
 1111 be/4 root        0.00 B/s    0.00 B/s  0.00 % 99.99 % [md3_raid6]
Total DISK READ :     114.25 K/s | Total DISK WRITE :       5.37 M/s
Actual DISK READ:     114.25 K/s | Actual DISK WRITE:       5.40 M/s
  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
13036 idle mark        0.00 B/s    5.34 M/s  0.00 % 99.99 %
baloo_file_extractor 159074 159073 159072 159071 159070 159069 159068
159067 159066 159065 159064 159063 159062 159061 159060 159059 159058
159057 159056 159055 159054 159053 159052 159051 159050 159049 159048
159047 159046 159045 159044 159017 159016 158990 158802 158721 158720
158719 158718 158717
 1111 be/4 root        0.00 B/s    0.00 B/s  0.00 % 72.28 % [md3_raid6]
 1124 be/3 root        0.00 B/s 2039.91 B/s  0.00 %  8.45 % [jbd2/md3-8]
12459 be/4 mark      407.98 B/s    7.17 K/s  0.00 %  0.25 % plugins
[Chrome_CacheThr]
 8407 be/4 mark      113.85 K/s   27.19 K/s  0.00 %  0.03 % VirtualBox
--comment TradeStation Stable --startvm
49bef29d-6408-470e-a0c3-f3930f98e502 --no-startvm-errormsgbox
[AioMgr0-N]
 7707 be/4 root        0.00 B/s    0.00 B/s  0.00 %  0.02 % [kworker/1:0]